Feds meet with telecoms over Hurricane Fiona, NS premier unimpressed

Heads of Canada's major telecommunications companies met with federal officials Wednesday evening to discuss the failures of the system in the Atlantic provinces as a result of Hurricane Fiona. While the ministers in Ottawa had nice things to say about the parlay, Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston was underwhelmed. BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc., Telus Corp., Bragg Communications Inc. subsidiary Eastlink and Xplore Inc. held a video conference with Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, Innovation Minister François-Phillipe Champagne and Nova Scotia MPs Kody Blois and Andy Fillmore. Afterward the innovation minister seemed conciliatory. “We commended the companies for assisting each other during this emergency, as per the recent agreement reached between Canada’s major telecommunications service providers,” Champagne tweeted. “We instructed them to review potential logistical and procedural gaps that may exist in their emergency response plans, and to work with partners, including utility companies and the operators of other key infrastructure, to enhance coordination. At a Thursday Parliamentary scrum Freeland also seemed pleased. “I think we all need to recognize it’s 2022, and our phones are an essential service,” she said according to a transcript. “In times of crisis they are as important for Canadians as electricity or heating, or water. And we, I think, really got that message across. We talked about what we can do now, what lessons we can learn to do a better job next time.” At his Thursday news conference, Houston, who has been critical of the telecoms, took a more adversarial approach. “We’re trying to work with the federal government and urge them in joining us and telling the telecommunications companies that their response has not been good enough so far,” the premier stated. “I was glad to see the federal government listening and following that lead a bit by convening a meeting with the telecommunications providers.” Telecoms should have been at the command centres along with other first responders, he argued. Houston hopes to be briefed by his federal counterparts on what happened at the meeting. Even though telecommunications is a federal responsibility, he maintains there is a role for the province to play to ensure that future disasters are handled better. Reporters pointed out that an improved telecom network was promised after Hurricane Dorian in 2019. “If the federal government drops the ball again, I won’t,” Houston vowed. The major service providers in Nova Scotia had representatives at a briefing by provincial officials on Thursday. They were asked if better service requirements should be mandated by the CRTC. “I just don’t think it’s reasonable, recognizing a weather event like this, to have a mandatory mandate to provide service,” Bell’s Geoff Moore, director of voice and 911 services, told reporters. “I think it’s just physically not possible given events like this.” He mentioned that telecom service providers were able to use each other's networks due to the outages, a point that was reiterated by Eastlink’s Steve Irvin. “911 is the highest priority call and, as Geoff mentioned, even if your own service provider was down for any reason there are protocols within this system to find a signal if it’s available,” Irvin, the company’s chief technology officer, stated. –Reporting by Paul Park at ppark@thewirereport.ca and editing by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca

Feds meet with telecoms over Hurricane Fiona, NS premier unimpressed

News | September 30, 2022

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Feds meet with telecoms over Hurricane Fiona, NS premier unimpressed

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